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What does Obama have to do with appointing his successor as senator? As I understand it the wiretaps show a Governor upset because the Obama people are only offering him their appreciation if he appoints a replacement preferred by Obama.

The reality is that corruption seems to thrive anywhere you have decisions being made without review or any balance of power. The most common sources of corruption are trivial administrative decisions that have been delegated downhill. Look at the people handling traffic tickets and leases in government or the people buying supplies in corporations (in my own experience, corruption in large corporations is at least as prevalent as corruption in government). In Illinois and other states, giving Governors sole authority to appoint successors is an invitation to corruption.

We are actually coming up on the ultimate invitation for corruption -- the pardons handed out by an out-going President. It will be interesting to see who will benefit from GWB's largess. Hopefully his own moral standards will not allow him to sink as low as prior Presidents, including Clinton, have gone. Will he pardon Ted Stevens? What about Scooter Libby. If he's smart, he might even want to reserve a pardon for himself and Dick. It seems to me that it's about time for this particular tradition to be abandoned. Maybe then the states will institute some of their own checks and balances.

I hope you get paid by the DNC or someobody for shameless shilling like that. How much does one's political integrity go for nowadays anyway?

If you wished to maintain even a tiny shred of credibility I think the proper response would have been something along the lines of, "I'm glad he was caught. I loathe crooks of all political persuasions. If he's guilty I hope he goes to jail for a long time."

I took Henry's comment to be tongue in cheek. The press not reporting the good news is a common complaint from the right.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery regards...

"For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required." -- Luke 12:48

If that were true I would imagine instead of BHO's first comments being "I've had no contact with the governor over the appointment." he would have taken the opportunity to toot his own horn over seeing corruption and alerting the authorities claiming a "new" kind of politics.

His associations are pretty deep, both directly and through Mr. Emanual, Axlerod, etc.. Though even Mr. Axelrod didn't think Blago passed the smell test back in 2002 and wouldn't work for his campaign for Governer. Obama and Emanuel held their nose.

Agreed, I had not seen the statement that Obama had not had any contact with the governor over the appointment. That is hard to believe given the gov's statements on tape to the effect that all Obama was willing to give was his appreciation for a pick that suited him. It will be interesting to see if we ever find out who it was the informant turned the bass terd in.

Last edited by Buzz; 12-10-2008 at 09:57 AM.

"For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required." -- Luke 12:48

If that is true, I wonder if/when he will be indicted. Anyone taking bets?

There is a prevailing theory that the prosecutor (Fitzgerald) made the arrest and blew the whole thing up before any actual crimes were committed (Seat was never appointed so the "sale" didn't happen). This was done to protect those in the "Machine" from actual prosecution. Odds are even that most of this cast will walk clean and be running in the next election. Possible exception is the Gov. himself and maybe his CoS.

"Conspiracy and Intent" are much harder to prove than being caught red handed. Why would they stop this before the crime is committed and all the cast of characters get their fingers in?